South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT will overhaul its management system for joint research with overseas research institutes to protect domestic research results and intellectual property (IP) and improve transparency in research fund spending. It will secure up to six months for negotiation by research institutions and tighten standards for research fund spending and post-management.

The ministry said on Saturday that the steering committee of the 89th deliberation meeting of the National Science and Technology Advisory Council reviewed and approved the "plan to systematise management of international joint research".

The plan was prepared to address concerns about IP leakage and problems in managing research funds as forms of international joint research have diversified, including cases in which overseas research institutes directly participate in national research and development (R&D) programmes.

The ministry will reorganise the types of international joint research. The existing "general" type will be renamed the "commissioned" type, and the "joint institution" type, in which the government and an overseas research institute sign an agreement directly, will be promoted as the standard type. To protect IP, it will standardise a two-stage agreement process in which substantive research begins after up to six months of advance preparation. Previously, agreements had to be signed within 30 days of project selection.

During the advance preparation stage, the ministry will support costs needed to identify overseas partner institutions and negotiate IP contract terms. It will then review an initial implementation arrangement (IIA) to decide whether to move into substantive research.

For joint institution-type research, the ministry presented a non-negotiable minimum requirement "red line" and negotiable standards "green line" to secure legitimate technology implementation rights for domestic research institutes. For commissioned research, it will strictly apply the principle that domestic institutions own IP. In the event of disputes, it will first recommend exclusive jurisdiction of South Korean courts and the designation of domestic arbitration institutions such as the Korea Commercial Arbitration Board (KCAB). It will also strengthen support for contract negotiations through IP support organisations within specialised agencies.

Standards for managing research funds will be applied differently depending on the research type. For the joint institution type, the ministry will set country-by-country standards for research fund use for the United States and the European Union (EU), among others. It will grant special provisions allowing overseas institutions with strong internal control systems to apply local standards for research fund spending.

For the commissioned type, it will make reporting on research fund spending mandatory and check appropriateness through project evaluations and other measures. For international joint research projects above a certain scale, it will 추진 apply audit certification by local accounting firms and setting aside part of research funds as an implementation guarantee deposit until settlement is completed.

The ministry plans to begin revising related rules and reflect the improvements in the national R&D international joint research manual by the first half of 2027. The revamped management system will be fully applied starting with new projects in 2028.

The steering committee on Saturday also approved "projects excluded from the cap on the number of R&D projects that can be carried out concurrently" for national R&D programmes in 2027.

The government will expand the scope of exceptions to the "3 lead, 5 total" system, which limits researchers to a maximum of 5 national R&D projects at the same time and a maximum of 3 projects in which they participate as principal investigator.

Among new projects in 2027, small-scale projects with average annual research funding of 60 million won or less, projects conducted by signing separate agreements for the same project with multiple ministries, and technology commercialisation projects aimed at technology transfer and commercialisation of public research results and start-ups will be excluded from the "3 lead, 5 total" system. Exceptions for technology commercialisation projects will be recognised within a range of less than 15 percent of new projects in 2027 for each ministry.

Park In-kyu (박인규), head of the Office of Science and Technology Innovation, said, "This plan will serve as an opportunity to secure institutional completeness to protect our research outcomes and technological sovereignty." He added, "We will communicate closely with the field so international joint research can be pursued more transparently and with greater substance."